David Cameron and George Osborne must "recommit" to tackling climate change, end squabbles within Government and work towards strict cuts in carbon emissions, Lord Stern said today.

The author of the Economics of Climate Change, a major Treasury review into the issue in 2006, said the "bickering" between the Treasury and the Department for Energy and Climate Change was throwing investment into doubt.

Lord Stern urged the Chancellor to use his March Budget to commit to the fourth carbon budget plan - including commitment to cut carbon commissions by 50% of 1990 levels by 2025.

Speaking to the Sky News Murnaghan programme, Lord Stern said: "What's been the problem really is the bickering between the Treasury and the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

"The Budget on March 19 is a real opportunity to put that bickering to rest and for George Osborne and David Cameron to recommit to the challenge of combating climate change, which I do believe David Cameron takes seriously.

"What they could do is first confirm their targets for 2025, a 50% reduction relative to 1990, stand because that's the fourth carbon budget and they said they will review it. The Climate Change Committee said they should stick to it and that's exactly what they should do.

"If they did that, confidence for investment would go up. In order to do that, they would essentially have to take out coal from electricity production in the next 10 or 15 years.

"That commitment would generate investment. They could commit to the Green Deal - it has really reached only a few thousand households. If you compare that with the conversion to natural gas, which took place between 1967 and 1977, British Gas got to a million or more households a year."